Lithuanian ducal kindreds

Who he is

Name

not pinned: the heads of these families on 1 January 1200 are unnamed

Title

dukes (kunigaikščiai) of the Lithuanian lands

Since

not pinned

Born

not pinned

Family

Known from the treaty of 1219 (Hypatian chronicle under 1215): the elder dukes Živinbudas, Daujotas, Dausprungas, his brother Mindaugas, and Daujotas's brother Viligaila; the Ruškaičiai (Rushkovichi): Kintibutas, Vembutas, Butautas, Vyžeikis and his son Vyšlis, Kitenis and Plikosova; the Bulioniai (Bulevichi): Visimantas, Edivilas and Sprudeikis. A later German verse chronicle calls the father of Dausprungas and Mindaugas a mighty king; his name is unknown (the name Ringaudas comes from 16th-century chronicles and is not reliable).

Confidence

low

The 1219 list is the only evidence of these families and is twenty years later. Some of its signatories were children or unborn in 1200 (Mindaugas's birth is usually put about 1200-1203, not pinned). Who led each family in 1200, and where their lands lay, is not pinned; historians place the elder dukes in Lithuania proper and the Bulioniai and Ruškaičiai in the eastern and southern lands, without proof.

What it holds

• the hillforts and people of the Lithuanian lands, in shares not recorded
• war bands and retinues, the spoils and captives of raids

How it was acquired

By inheritance within the kindreds.

Allies and rivals

Allied with one another for great raids; rivalries between them are not recorded before Mindaugas's killings of his kinsmen and the Bulioniai in the 1230s-1240s.

How things stand that morning

Hold the Lithuanian lands; no single family is shown above the rest on 1 January 1200 (not pinned).

Wealth

Spoils of war, slaves, cattle and silver; the produce and labour of their lands.

Military

Their own mounted retinues and the levies of their lands.

Threats

• kin feuds
• Rus' and Volhynian retaliation for raids

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 1219 (later)Twenty-one Lithuanian and Samogitian dukes, five of them elders, make peace with the widow and sons of Roman of Volhynia.Depends on: the wars with Volhynia after Roman's death in 1205 Stopped by: a different course of the southern wars

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Twenty years separate the only list of names from 1200; use it as evidence of the families, never of the holders.

Primary sources for Lithuanians

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Chronicle of Novgorod (kept year by year; the Synodal manuscript written in the 13th and 14th centuries). Novgorod's own record, kept at St Sophia. Read online
• The Livonian Chronicle of Henry, Henry of Livonia (1225 to 1227). The chief source for the Baltic mission. Read online